Mi’kmaq youth torn between two worlds

Hawk tells the story of a character conflicted by life on the reserve, life in the city

Monique Mojica, left, Daniel Knight and Paula-Jean Prudat perform in Onelight Theatre’s new play Hawk or How He Plays His Song, the story of a Mi’kmaq youth caught between the reserve and the city, opening Friday at the Neptune Studio Theatre and running to Sept. 29. (CHRISTIAN LAFORCE / Staff)

People will sit under the wings of a giant hawk, like being under a tent, for Onelight Theatre’s new play about a Mi’kmaq youth named Hawk.

“We’re under the same sky and alone with the same tree as Hawk,” says writer-director Shahin Sayadi, artistic director of Halifax’s Onelight Theatre.

He was inspired to write Hawk or How He Plays His Song by his experiences sundancing every July in Big Cove, N.B., for the last 12 years and by his friendship with his teacher, William Nevin, cultural advisor for this play.

Sayadi originally came to Canada in 1986 as a young man from Iran.

“As an immigrant, it’s always been a struggle to understand the Canadian identity and I have come to understand it’s a mix of all of these different ones and not just one. The beginning of it is our natives and the land we’re in is the land of the Mi’kmaq and Hawk is a story of family.

“I have spent a lot of time with kids like Hawk so I see Hawk all the time.”

Hawk, played by Saskatoon actor Daniel Knight, is a 20-year-old Mi’kmaq torn between two worlds, the traditional one of the reserve, where he lives with his mother, and the urban one of Halifax, where he studies music and where his father is a lawyer running for politics.

Sayadi describes the story as a simple family drama, yet, technically Hawk is very complex.

Sayadi and technical director Mike Mader with Jake Dambergs and Nick Bottomley have spent years working on the design, specifically on new technology to make the system for projections, light and sound operable by the push of a button.

“We’re pushing some technology boundaries. We did a lot of research and study to get the right software and get the right lighting board. Everything is on one computer and one button.”

The self-contained performance space, Mobilight, is designed for touring rural communities.

Hawk is Onelight’s biggest project to date and the goal is to tour it to reserves and small centres in Nova Scotia and throughout Canada, starting next year.

“We don’t want to compromise on production design and quality,” says Sayadi. “We want to take the same show we do in the big city and take the show there.”

Onelight built the Hawk set at Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia — “they’re great friends and supporters of ours” — and developed the play with support from the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre and Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal.

Knight easily relates to his character.

“Hawk is a young guy,” he says. “He’s 20 and he’s a very good kid steeped in the traditions with his mom and he lives on the reserve. He’s also a lobster fisher. He loves it. That’s who he is, being on the water. That makes him feel whole.”

However, Hawk is also a musician and going to school in Halifax.

“Hawk is caught between the two worlds of loving the traditions and going the lobster fishing and trying to make it in the city,” the actor says.

Knight is a Cree and Metis but he grew up with Ojibway teachings. He was five when he moved from the reserve to the city with his family. His mother immersed him in the culture of the city.

“It was a huge change from the reserve. On the reserve you can be free, you come to the city, you’ve got racism, exclusion, danger. And since you left the reserve some people don’t appreciate you being city boys,” says Knight, but he has handled the conflict.

“I know who I am and who I want to be and I’m doing what I want to do.”

As a bassist and backup singer, Knight has his own band, Night Switch. He has toured since he was 16 throughout North America with his father, Juno award-winning, singer-songwriter Chester Knight.

“A lot of native theatre is about teaching who we are,” Knight says. “Native history is not taught in schools. It’s not taught in schools about who or why we are.”

This play is “for the young people,” says Sayadi. “When the family issues come in there is nothing inappropriate. Azat is bringing her friends.”

Azat is Sayadi’s 10-year-old daughter. Sayadi and his wife, the company’s managing director, Maggie Stewart, started Onelight 10 years ago with The Crib theatre on Gottingen Street. Azat was an infant in a crib back stage.

“This is our 10th show and our 10th anniversary and Azat is 10.”

Hawk’s run coincides with the third Prismatic Festival (www.prismaticfestival.com) run by Sayadi and Stewart. The performing and visual arts festival celebrating cultural diversity has 47 performances in Halifax, with one performance in Wolfville, starting Friday and running to Sept. 29.

• Onelight Theatre’s premiere of Hawk or How He Plays His Song at the Neptune Studio Theatre, opening Friday, with a pay-what-you-can preview tonight, is about a young, adventurous, aspiring Mi’kmaq musician at a cross roads.

• Does he follow his father for a life in the city, hanging out with his girlfriend? Or does he stay on his reserve, fishing lobster with his mother?